• OpenAI says it will be launching the Android version of the ChatGPT app within the next week.
• Not much is known about the Android app, or what differences it has compared to the iOS version.
• The app can be pre-downloaded right now via the Google Play Store.

After initially launching its free app only for Apple devices, OpenAI has announced that the ChatGPT app is finally headed to Android.

The app will begin rolling out to users over the next week, says OpenAI in a post on X, the former Twitter.

ChatGPT has hundreds of millions of users worldwide, with most users still visiting OpenAI’s website to try out the chatbot. Now with the rollout of free apps on Android as well as on iOS, everyone with a smartphone will be able to access the generative AI directly. While users gain faster access, OpenAI also gains new datasets from the smartphone users themselves.

The Android version of ChatGPT can be pre-downloaded already via the Google Play store, finally putting an end to all of the third-party and fly-by-night chatbot clones clogging up searches on that platform.

The iOS version of the platform leverages an open-source speech recognition software called “Whisper” to allow users to make speech inputs, as well as text prompts. Perhaps the Android version will feature something similar.

Not even the Play Store page has any specifics, detailing only that it is the official app and that it “…syncs your history across devices, and brings you the newest model improvements from OpenAI.” There are also in-app purchases available, but these will no doubt be the choice to buy a subscription for ChatGPT.

Subscribers get some improvements over non-subscribers, and also access to the latest beta builds and experiments that OpenAI is rolling out to the platform before anyone else. The ultimate of which is “custom chat instructions” for ChatGPT.

In a blog post, OpenAI describes this feature as one that will “allow you to add preferences or requirements that you’d like ChatGPT to consider when generating its responses.”

[Image – Photo by Rolf van Root on Unsplash]